Who can guess where my oil went?

[njm23]

Yeah, I am stumped, seriously. I pulled the head off to bring the a machine shop to make sure it was completely flat, new headgasket went in ect.. I put a new mobil 1 oil filter and poured in about 3.5 quarts of oil, put the coolant in. Okay time to start it!

Starts up, runs for a couple minutes, I shut it off wondering what my oil level is at. Is was literally about 2 quarts low. There is no oil on the ground, not even a drip that I can see. My coolant is fine has no oil in it nor has gone down or up in level. car is not excessively smoking, just what appears to be the normal cold start/air smoke. No smoke clouds or blue smoke.

Any ideas? basically my car is going to take 5-6 quarts of oil, wtf? It is sitting, low, for now. Until I can go to the store to get more oil.. Anyone have any ideas?

[GetBoosted84]

After the car gets warm some oil will travel outside of the pan which is why the oil level would go down when it's warm. The question is, after filling your car full of oil and driving it around, does the oil level stay the same after letting it sit for a bit to let it cool down?

Another question too. Assuming that after you let the car sit, the oil level is low then I would check to see if you have chocolate milk looking oil when you drain it to see if coolant is mixing with it.

[njm23]

There is no mixing of coolant and oil that I can see. Coolant is pink as ever, oil was clean no condensation or "milky white" color under the oil cap. It took another 3/4 of a quart to make it at the right level. So took almost 5 quarts. Could have maybe been from me pulling the head so almost all the oil was drained compared to a normal change?

Shit just has me worried since I dont wanna go through this again, this was the second time I had to pull the head

[turbo kraut]

iirc our cars take about 4.5-4.75 quarts of oil anyway.........


so if you put in 3.5 + .75 = 4.5 quarts..... vwalla.... ding ding ding


sorry i change oil for a living...... but i only use oem filters.......for my car at least

[njm23]

nah, my car only takes barely 4 qts.. actually a lil less on a regular oil change. either way we'll see what happens tomorrow when i run it for a while

[Saskwatch]

4.5 qts here, with a oc51 mahle filter

just changed it today...

;)

[GetBoosted84]

There is no mixing of coolant and oil that I can see. Coolant is pink as ever, oil was clean no condensation or "milky white" color under the oil cap. It took another 3/4 of a quart to make it at the right level. So took almost 5 quarts. Could have maybe been from me pulling the head so almost all the oil was drained compared to a normal change?

Shit just has me worried since I dont wanna go through this again, this was the second time I had to pull the head

I normally put almost 4.5 quarts in for a full fill with the large oem filter. Sounds like you are OK to me.

Just to double check, after you put in the extra 3/4 quart and drive around you aren't losing any oil (after it cools down) or seeing smoke right?

[somebody5788]

Yeah, I am stumped, seriously. I pulled the head off to bring the a machine shop to make sure it was completely flat, new headgasket went in ect.. I put a new mobil 1 oil filter and poured in about 3.5 quarts of oil, put the coolant in. Okay time to start it!

Starts up, runs for a couple minutes, I shut it off wondering what my oil level is at. Is was literally about 2 quarts low. There is no oil on the ground, not even a drip that I can see. My coolant is fine has no oil in it nor has gone down or up in level. car is not excessively smoking, just what appears to be the normal cold start/air smoke. No smoke clouds or blue smoke.

Any ideas? basically my car is going to take 5-6 quarts of oil, wtf? It is sitting, low, for now. Until I can go to the store to get more oil.. Anyone have any ideas?

normal amount is 4qt's for the car. 4.5 would bring it all the way to the top of the stick and if you check it before starting it will read .5qts lower after u start

[Poopie]

probably cause your head was completely drained after going to the machine shop.

[Yaktizzle417]

Check your TIP and intercooler.

[GetBoosted84]

Check your TIP and intercooler.

Keep in mind that you should see a little bit of oil in your TIP and intercooler piping if you still have a PCV system on your car.

[road race s4]

If you didn't put 4.5 quarts to begin with and you checked the oil soon after the engine was shut down then that explains why you're low.
Add the extra quart and wait several minutes after you shut the engine off so you give the oil enough time to drain back into the pan.

[GetBoosted84]

If you didn't put 4.5 quarts to begin with and you checked the oil soon after the engine was shut down then that explains why you're low.
Add the extra quart and wait several minutes after you shut the engine off so you give the oil enough time to drain back into the pan.

It took another 3/4 of a quart to make it at the right level. So took almost 5 quarts.

He already put in more on top of the original 3.5 quarts. Don't put an additional quart in if you already put in 3.5 + .75. That would not be a sound idea.

[EuRoSp1c]

u completely drained ur oil from ur car when u took the head off so its going to take more to fill up then usual... and u need to let the car sit for a bit so the oil drains back down.. with large filter ur car takes 4.25 qts.... u should be fine

[njm23]

probably cause your head was completely drained after going to the machine shop.

This is what I was thinking.. My car never takes that much oil, and after what has been going on lately with this car it just scared the shit out of me when I poured in almost 4 qts and was still quite low, me being paranoid ha. I need this car back on the road.

O yeah, I don't run a pcv system, so rule that out. Hoping this damn thing sealed correctly or I may just be quiting and selling this car, can't deal with any more problems.

[quattro16]

What size oil filter are you using? The old small one or the new .5qt bigger one. An oil change on any 1.8t, drain oil and big filter is exactly 4.5qts.

[njm23]

i'm not worried about the correct amount. I run mobil 1 oil filter (fairly large) and every oil change takes about 4 quarts. Just this one took more, pretty sure it was what a couple of you said about my pulling the head and that is where it went.

[Nebone]

Top it off and it will settle. Oil lines and passages will probably account for the missing volume.